‘Palworld' Deleting Pal Gliding Due To Nintendo Patent Lawsuit
Pokemon/Palworld
Palworld is still under siege by patent lawsuits brought by Nintendo against a number of game mechanics that have resulted in fundamental changes to the monster-catching game. Now, something else is getting removed from Palworld thanks to the increasingly oppressive slate of patents.
Nintendo has now forced Palworld to delete the concept of gliding with a Pal in the game, as in, you hang from a flying pal to use as a glider instead of an actual glider. Palworld shared the news on social media late last night:
The one bit of good news here is that this does not mean the erasure of flying Pals you can ride, only Pals you can use as gliders which shows how weirdly specific and irritating these patents can be. It seems obvious you shouldn't be able to patent say, riding on a flying creature, but with these patents, at this point, who really knows.
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This joins another fundamental change where Palworld has had to replace the concept of throwing spheres to summon Pals to instantly just summon them next to the player, another Nintendo patent, along with other mechanics.
Palworld
It is very hard to defend Nintendo in these patent proceedings, even though patenting gameplay mechanics or systems is not a new concept. Most famously, there was a patent preventing minigames to be used in loading screens. Most recently, Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis system of defeating and upgrading a hierarchy of enemies was patented, meaning that innovative system cannot be used in other games. A recent Wonder Woman from the publisher was just cancelled, which reportedly used the system which is now locked in prison due to the patent
The public perception of what Nintendo is doing here is poor, but Nintendo has yet to face anything close to widespread consequences for many of its controversial decisions and practices, from its war on Palworld to its new introduction of $80 games for the Switch 2, which sold out in minutes via pre-orders.
Pokemon Legends
Pocketpair is stuck between a Digitoise and a hard place here, having no choice but to remove these seemingly innocuous mechanics, lest they spend ages and millions fighting the massive Nintendo in court over each patent. While Palworld presses on, all this has slowed development and the company is apologetic to fans:
This does not seem like it's over, and Nintendo's war on Palworld will continue to press on with no doubt surprising and often ridiculous claims about its mechanics.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
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